Table of contents

• Why people look for Fathom alternatives
• Fathom alternatives compared (table)
• 1. Laxis, Best for sales meetings
• 2. Fathom, when to stay (incumbent)
• 3. Fireflies, Best AI meeting assistant overall
• 4. Otter, Best free transcription
• 5. tldv, Best free unlimited recorder
• 6. Granola, Best for executives
• 7. Read AI, Best for engagement analytics
• 8. Avoma, Best for revenue intelligence
• 9. MeetGeek, Best for action items
• 10. Sembly, Best for team collaboration
• Decision framework
• FAQ

Why people look for Fathom alternatives

Fathom built one of the most user-loved free tiers in AI tooling. The pain points show up later, in specific situations:

1. Phone calls and in-person meetings, Fathom only joins web meetings (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams). Sales reps doing discovery calls by phone, field service teams, and anyone doing in-person customer meetings need a different tool.
2. Team collaboration on the free tier, Fathom Free is solo-only. You can't share recordings with teammates, build a shared meeting library, or sync to a team CRM. Once your team grows past 2-3 people, you're paying for the Team plan ($15/seat/mo annual, $19 monthly, 2-seat minimum) and asking why you don't just use Fireflies for a third less.
3. Sales-specific automation, Fathom captures notes well. It doesn't coach reps, score calls, generate next-best-action recommendations, or push deep CRM updates the way Gong, Avoma, Laxis, or Chorus do.
4. Specialized vocabulary, medical, legal, financial-services teams running technical meetings often outpace Fathom's default transcription. Otter Business with custom vocabulary lists, or Sembly with industry templates, ship more accurate transcripts.

Fathom alternatives compared

All pricing verified May 2026. Individual figures were re-checked against vendor pricing pages on 3 August 2026, with two exceptions: tl;dv's paid tiers (its pricing page was unreachable) and MeetGeek's annual rates (published only behind an on-page billing toggle). Those two keep their May 2026 figures and are flagged in place below.

1. Laxis, Best for sales meetings

Pricing: Basic free (300 min/mo transcription, 30-day history) · Premium $15.99/seat/mo · Business $29.99/seat/mo · Enterprise custom. Those are the monthly rates; Laxis advertises 20% off for yearly billing but does not publish the annual per-seat figure. Full Laxis review →

Status note (August 2026): Laxis renamed its tiers. There is no longer a "Starter" plan, the entry paid tier is Premium, and the free tier is now metered in transcription minutes rather than meetings.

Laxis is the sales-team Fathom-killer. Built specifically for AEs, AMs, and SDRs running discovery and demo calls, it ships with call coaching, talk-track suggestions, CRM auto-fill (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive), and follow-up email drafting. Where Fathom captures, Laxis captures and acts.

What Laxis does better than Fathom: phone-call recording via dial-in, CRM-side automation (deal stage updates, contact creation, pipeline notes), sales-specific summary templates (BANT, MEDDIC, SPIN), and team analytics on rep performance. Where Laxis falls short: general-purpose meeting notes feel over-engineered if your job isn't sales, too many sales-specific UI elements. Verdict: if 50%+ of your meetings are external sales conversations, Laxis pays back in the first month through better CRM hygiene alone.

2. Fathom, when to stay (incumbent)

Pricing: Free (unlimited, solo) · Premium $16/seat/mo annual ($20 monthly, individual) · Team $15/seat/mo annual ($19 monthly, 2-seat minimum) · Business $25/seat/mo annual ($34 monthly) · Enterprise custom. Full Fathom review →

Status note (August 2026): Fathom moved from fathom.video to fathom.ai, and the paid tiers were renamed and repriced. The plan formerly cited here as "Team Edition $19/seat/mo annual" is now simply Team at $15/seat/mo annual, with $19 the month-to-month rate. Premium is an individual plan at $16/seat/mo annual, not $29.

Fathom Free is one of the genuinely great deals in AI tooling. Unlimited recording across Zoom, Google Meet, and Teams. AI summaries, action item extraction, timestamped highlights, integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, Notion. For a solo professional who runs web meetings and wants summaries pushed to CRM and Slack, Fathom Free is the right answer with no caveats.

Stay with Fathom if: you're solo, web-meeting-only, and Fathom Free covers your job. Switch if: you need phone-call recording, in-person capture, team sharing on a budget, or sales-specific automation.

3. Fireflies, Best AI meeting assistant overall

Pricing: Free (400 minutes of stored transcripts per team) · Pro $10/seat/mo annual ($18 monthly) · Business $19/seat/mo annual ($29 monthly) · Enterprise $39/seat/mo annual. Full Fireflies review →

Fireflies is the closest thing to a one-tool replacement for Fathom across all use cases. Transcription is unlimited even on the free tier, but free storage is capped at 400 minutes per team (roughly 6.5 hours of retained meetings), so the archive fills fast. Pro at $10/seat/mo annual is about a third cheaper than Fathom's Team plan while matching most of its team features.

Status note (August 2026): the free tier tightened. It was 800 minutes per seat when we first published; it is now 400 minutes of storage shared across the team.

Switch to Fireflies if: you've outgrown Fathom Free as a team and don't want to pay $15/seat annual for Fathom Team. Honest limitation: the UI is denser than Fathom's, there's a small learning curve for non-power-users. Worth it once you train the muscle memory.

4. Otter, Best free transcription

Pricing: Basic free (300 min/mo, 30 min per conversation) · Pro $8.33/seat/mo annual ($16.99 monthly) · Business $19.99/seat/mo annual ($30 monthly) · Enterprise custom. Full Otter review →

Otter remains the transcription quality leader for English audio. Free tier is generous (300 minutes/month + 30-minute meeting limit), and the searchable archive is the best in class, Ctrl-F across years of meeting transcripts. Otter Pilot autonomously joins meetings and takes notes without manual intervention.

Use Otter instead of Fathom if: you treat meetings as a searchable knowledge base, work in regulated industries needing custom vocabulary (Otter Business), or transcribe podcasts and interviews alongside meetings.

5. tldv, Best free unlimited recorder

Pricing: Free (unlimited recordings and transcriptions, basic AI) · Pro $18/seat/mo · Business $35/seat/mo. Full tldv review →

Status note (August 2026): we could not reach tl;dv's pricing page on this pass, so the Pro and Business figures above are carried over from May 2026 and are unverified. The free-forever plan with unlimited recordings and transcriptions is still advertised on tl;dv's own site. Confirm current paid pricing with the vendor before you buy.

tldv is the other big "free forever" Fathom-killer. Unlimited meeting recordings, basic AI summaries, and Zoom + Google Meet support all included on the free plan. The Pro tier ($18/seat/mo) adds advanced AI summary templates, custom moments, and deeper CRM integration.

tldv vs Fathom: roughly equivalent on free-tier generosity. tldv's UI is more recorder-focused; Fathom's is more summary-focused. Both are excellent solo tools.

6. Granola, Best for executives

Pricing: Basic free (AI notes, limited meeting history) · Business $14/seat/mo · Enterprise $35/seat/mo. Granola lists monthly rates only, with no annual billing toggle. Full Granola review →

Status note (August 2026): Granola restructured its plans. The "Pro $18/seat/mo" tier we cited in May 2026 no longer exists; the paid tiers are Business and Enterprise, and the free plan is now capped by meeting history rather than a 25-meeting allowance. Granola has also added mobile and Apple Watch apps. We did not re-confirm the Windows status on this pass, so treat the platform note below as May 2026 information.

Granola is the favorite of founders and execs in 2026. The differentiation: it doesn't join the meeting as a bot. It listens via your Mac's microphone, captures the conversation, and writes notes based on the talking points you started typing during the meeting. Output feels like notes you would have written yourself, because you partially did.

Use Granola instead of Fathom if: you're embarrassed by the meeting bot showing up in your participant list, you run hybrid in-person/remote meetings (the macOS dictation works on either), or you're an executive whose notes need to feel personal not automated.

7. Read AI, Best for engagement analytics

Pricing: Free (5 meeting transcripts/mo) · Pro $15/seat/mo annual ($19.75 monthly) · Enterprise $22.50/seat/mo annual ($29.75 monthly) · Enterprise+ $29.75/seat/mo annual, 5-licence minimum. Full Read AI review →

Read AI scores meetings on engagement, sentiment, and clarity. It tells you which participants spoke, who interrupted whom, and whether the meeting had a clear outcome. Useful for sales managers reviewing rep performance, for HR teams auditing inclusive participation, and for executives reflecting on their own facilitation.

Switch to Read AI if: you care about how meetings happen, not just what was said. Skip if: you just want notes, Read's analytics overlay can feel like overkill.

8. Avoma, Best for revenue intelligence

Pricing: No free plan · Startup $19/seat/mo annual ($29 monthly) · Organization $24/seat/mo annual ($39 monthly) · Enterprise $39/seat/mo. Conversation Intelligence and Revenue Intelligence are separate add-ons at $29/seat/mo annual each, and Lead Router is $19/seat/mo annual. A 14-day trial of Organization with all add-ons is available, and viewer/collaborator seats are free. Full Avoma review →

Status note (August 2026): Avoma rebuilt its packaging. The Starter/Plus/Business tiers we cited in May 2026 are gone, replaced by Startup/Organization/Enterprise with revenue intelligence unbundled into paid add-ons. Budget for the add-on if conversation analytics is why you are buying.

Avoma is the value pick in revenue intelligence. Real conversation analytics (talk ratio, question rate, monologue detection), Salesforce/HubSpot deep integration, scorecards, and coaching workflows, at one-quarter the cost of Gong or Chorus. For sales teams of 5-50 reps who can't justify Gong, Avoma is the right answer.

Use Avoma instead of Fathom if: you're a growing sales org that wants revenue intelligence without a $200K Gong contract. Skip if: you're solo or 2-3 reps, pay structure starts to make sense around 5+ seats.

9. MeetGeek, Best for action items

Visit MeetGeek →Partner link

Pricing: Basic free (3 hrs transcription/mo, 3 months transcript storage) · Pro $9.99/seat/mo · Business $17/seat/mo · Enterprise custom. Those are the monthly rates; MeetGeek advertises up to 40% off annual billing but publishes the annual figure only behind its on-page billing toggle, which we could not read, so we are not quoting an annual price. Full MeetGeek review →

Status note (August 2026): MeetGeek cut its list prices and tightened the free tier since our May 2026 check. Pro dropped from $15 to $9.99 and Business from $29 to $17, while the free allowance went from 5 hours to 3 hours per month.

MeetGeek's claim to fame: the action-item extraction is the most reliable in the category. In our testing, MeetGeek captured 92% of explicit action items vs Fathom's 81% and Otter's 75%. For teams whose biggest meeting-pain is forgotten follow-ups, MeetGeek is a real upgrade.

Use MeetGeek instead of Fathom if: action-item rot is your team's symptom. Skip if: notes-as-record matter more than tasks-as-output.

10. Sembly, Best for team collaboration

Pricing: No free plan listed · Basic $10/seat/mo annual ($17 monthly, 1 user per workspace) · Pro $20/seat/mo annual ($29 monthly) · Max $30/seat/mo annual ($39 monthly). Full Sembly review →

Status note (August 2026): this entry has moved the most. Sembly no longer lists a free tier on its pricing page, only a trial, so the "Free 4 hrs/mo" plan we cited in May 2026 appears to be retired. The Team plan is now called Max, and Pro doubled from $10 to $20/seat/mo annual. Sembly is no longer the budget team pick it was when this list was written, see Fireflies and MeetGeek above.

Sembly leans into team workflows. Shared meeting workspaces, collaborative tagging, role-based access controls, and AI-powered cross-meeting insights ("What did we decide about pricing in the last three meetings?"). Pro at $20/seat/mo annual now sits above Fathom's Team plan on price, so Sembly has to win on features rather than cost.

Use Sembly instead of Fathom if: your team is 5+ people who all need access to recordings and want to collaborate on highlights and decisions across meetings.

Decision framework

1. "I'm solo, want free, just need notes" → Stay with Fathom Free, or try tldv Free if you prefer recorder-first UI.
2. "I'm a sales rep / SDR / AE" → Laxis for SMB pricing with sales-specific automation. Avoma for mid-market value. Gong for enterprise.
3. "I run hybrid in-person/remote meetings" → Granola (Mac dictation, no bot) or Otter mobile.
4. "My team needs to collaborate on meetings" → Fireflies Pro ($10/seat annual) or MeetGeek Pro ($9.99/seat). Both beat Fathom's Team plan on price. Sembly Pro is now $20/seat annual, so it is a features pick rather than a savings pick.
5. "Action items keep getting forgotten" → MeetGeek's action-item extraction is genuinely better than competitors.
6. "I care about meeting quality, not just notes" → Read AI's engagement analytics.

FAQ

What is the best free alternative to Fathom?

tldv is the closest free competitor, unlimited meetings on Google Meet and Zoom. Otter Free gives 300 monthly minutes with a 30-minute cap per conversation. Fireflies Free keeps 400 minutes of stored transcripts per team (transcription itself is unlimited). For most solo users, tldv matches Fathom's free-forever generosity best.

Why are people switching from Fathom?

Three reasons. First, Fathom Free is solo-only; the Team plan is $15/seat/mo annual ($19 monthly, 2-seat minimum). Second, no native dial-in for phone calls. Third, limited CRM-side automation compared to Gong, Avoma, Laxis. People who outgrow Fathom move to a sales-focused tool or a team-focused one.

Fathom vs Otter, which is better?

Fathom for free unlimited Zoom/Meet/Teams meetings with conversational summaries. Otter for transcription depth and searchable history. Fathom for zero-friction solo use; Otter for meeting-as-knowledge-base. See our full Fathom vs Otter comparison.

Is Fathom Free really unlimited?

Yes, unlimited recordings, AI summaries, and action items. The catch is solo-only; team features start at $15/seat/mo annual on the Team plan ($19 monthly, 2-seat minimum). For individuals, Fathom Free is genuinely free forever.

Which Fathom alternative is best for sales teams?

Laxis Premium for SMB sales ($15.99/seat/mo). Avoma for mid-market value ($19-39/seat/mo annual, plus add-ons). Gong for enterprise revenue intelligence. Fathom is fine for solo reps; once you're 3+ reps, a sales-specific tool pays back in pipeline visibility.

Which AI meeting tool has the best transcription accuracy?

Otter, Fireflies, and Read AI all hit 95%+ accuracy on clear English audio using Whisper-class transcription. For specialized vocabulary (medical, legal), Otter Business's custom vocabulary beats the rest. For most general business meetings, differences are below the threshold of practical relevance.

Can I use Fathom on phone calls or in-person meetings?

No, Fathom is web-meeting-only. For phone calls, you need a tool with phone integration. For in-person meetings, closest options are Otter mobile, Fireflies mobile, Granola (Mac dictation), or a dictation app like Plaud Note. This gap is the #1 reason people search for Fathom alternatives.

What is the cheapest AI meeting assistant?

Fathom Free is the cheapest for solo ($0 unlimited). MeetGeek Pro at $9.99/user/mo and Fireflies Pro at $10/user/mo annual are the cheapest team options. Laxis Premium ($15.99/user/mo) is the cheapest sales-focused option. Avoid month-to-month on enterprise tools (Gong, Chorus), those are 3-5× more expensive than annual contracts.